Supporting Lawrence to live his best life!
Lawrence has Cerebral Palsy and has spent most of his life in a wheelchair. When Lawrence and his parents moved from London, they were looking for a day service to support his needs.
Lawrence’s parents had a tour of The Grove Resource Centre and saw the fun activities they had in place. They saw the outward-bound activities, the hydrotherapy pool and all the creative workshops! Lawrence and his parents fell in love with the service and knew he would be safe and supported to fulfil his passions.
Building skills
Lawrence joined The Grove Resource Centre in 2013, when he was 19. He was able to communicate but needed further development with his verbal communication skills. He used symbols to talk to people but felt this was childish. It was important to Lawrence to work on his verbal skills.
Staff at the service understood his needs. They created a care plan to build on his verbal skills and improve his vocabulary. Now, Lawrence is ever so chatty with fellow service users and the support team. He’s a huge part of the service and a massive character. The team have loved seeing his confidence grow.
Helping to fulfil passions
At the service each person has their own person-centered annual outcome review. In this review, the people we support tell their support worker what they want to achieve for that year. This could be a skill they want to develop at the centre or life goals, like sky diving! The team at the service support with the planning and work with them to achieve these skills and goals.
Lawrence’s first goal was to go on the hovercraft to the Isle of Wight. The support team had never had this request before. They did their research and planned the trip with Lawrence and his family. This was the one of the best trips he’s ever had, and he absolutely loved it!
The Grove Resource Centre has many creative ways of supporting people. They have instruments for service users who love music. The working kitchen provides opportunity to build on cooking skills. There is also a carpentry workshop for to get hands on and build something fun.
Lawrence has attended many workshops. His favourite one being the carpentry workshop. He made tools for himself to use in the kitchen at the centre to slice cakes!
Living his best life
The service has a hydrotherapy pool, which is used to enable people with limited mobility to get some movement and exercise. Support workers can adjust the temperature, pressure and movement of water. This type of person-centred support makes people feel safe and empowered to try new things.
Lawrence loves to swim as it allows him to be out of his wheelchair and feel free. With two years of hard work, dedication and exceptional support from the team, Lawrence can now swim independently!
You can help someone live their best life!
As a support worker you get to help people live their best lives! The people we support have such fun passions and you can be a part of their amazing journey to help them live their dreams and create new life experiences! View vacancies in your area and apply today.